Header assemblies are often used to make multiple electrical connections from a printed circuit board to another component. Such header assemblies generally include a housing of dielectric material and a plurality of metal conductor pins. The conductor pins have a first portion that is firmly held in the housing and a second portion extending from the housing, often with a 90.degree. bend between the first and second portions of the pins. Generally, the pins are arranged in one or more rows. Some means is desirable to maintain these pin second portions of the pins in a pattern so that they may be directed into an array of holes in the circuit board. However, variations may occur in the relative location of the circuit board and other components that may forcibly shift the first portions of the pins relative to the second portions. This may occur because of manufacturing tolerance variations in the supports to which the circuit board and the components are initially attached during assembly. Such a forcible shifting may also occur later due to differentials in the rates of thermal expansion of the various components. The forcible shifting may jeopardize the solder joints in the absence of some means to accommodate it.
Header assemblies of the general type referred to are known in the art. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,345 to Sherwood discloses a connector assembly that uses two headers to connect a plurality of 90.degree. pins between a master circuit board and a plurality of other circuit boards arranged normal thereto. The first header firmly holds a first portion of the pins. The second header sits on the master circuit board over a plurality of circuit board holes and has a plurality of tapered, oversized passages that direct the second portions of the pins into the holes in the master board. This connector assembly has a disadvantage of being a two piece assembly, because the first and second headers are structurally separate and do not stay together as a unit. In addition, any flexibility of the first portions of the pins relative to the second portions would be limited by how far oversized the tapered passages in the second header were relative to the pin second portions. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,376 to Gladd et al, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a one-piece header assembly. The header assembly there disclosed includes a plurality of 90.degree. pins, each of which has a first portion held firmly in a dielectric housing and a second portion is maintained in proper position by a slotted locator plate integral with the housing. Any flexibility of the second portions of the pins relative to the first portions is likewise limited by the amount of oversizing of the slots in the locator plate relative to the pin second portions. While this one-piece header assembly works well in most environments, there may be environments where greater possible variations of the type discussed above exist, and where additional flexibility is needed.